Pragmatic internationalism: public opinion on South Africa's role in the world

This report of a public opinion survey on South Africa’s foreign policy did not attempt to gauge South Africans’ knowledge about specific issues in international politics, but rather their underlying attitudes, specifically their foreign policy postures. After providing a brief overview of the scholarly debates about the role of public opinion in foreign policy analysis, we contextualise the nature and methodological approach of the survey. Thereafter we organise the article according to three key themes that illuminate ‘ordinary’ South Africans’ foreign policy postures and how South Africans view their country’s international identity. These themes include, first, debates about what the purpose of our foreign policy should be; second, the country’s international role; and third, who South Africans consider to be our allies and role models. Finally, we distil possible patterns emerging from the survey into a posture that we relate to two concepts: ‘pragmatic internationalism’, and a ‘middle power role’.     

Macro versus micro remedies for alienation in the workplace

Manifestations of alienation are ubiquitous in modern society and are not limited to the workplace. The paradigm of alienation as delineated by Karl Marx is a valuable tool for understanding this phenomenon at societal and organizational levels. In addition, comprehension of this model can assist decision-makers in formulating better diagnoses and more effective solutions.

A review of the major points of Marx's three forms of alienation is described as a basis for examining the manifestations of alienation in society and the workplace. Subsequently, the author indicates societal solutions offered by selected scholars.

In examining the problem of estrangement in the workplace, it is clear that managers could identify the forces causing alienation more precisely through an understanding of Marx's paradigm. This knowledge would enable managers to select appropriate remedies to ameliorate the condition.

What the workers want most, as more than 100 studies in the past 20 years show, is to become masters of their immediate environments and to feel that their work and they themselves are important--the twin ingredients of self-esteem. Workers recognize that some of the dirty jobs can be transformed only into the merely tolerable, but the most oppressive features of work are felt to be avoidable: constant supervision and coercion, lack of variety, monotony, meaningless tasks, and isolation. An increasing number of workers want more autonomy in tackling their tasks, greater opportunity for increasing their skills, rewards that are directly connected to the intrinsic aspects of work, and greater participation in the design of work and the formulation of their tasks.

--Work in America     

Disability and support relationships: What role does policy play?

Very little is known about how relationships between people with disabilities and their paid support workers are positioned in policy. With the policy shift toward choice of provider, individualised approaches, person centredness and self‐directed funding, the nature of their relationship assumes a more prominent role in the quality of support practice. The policy analysis in this article explores the extent to which current disability policy acknowledges, promotes, or diminishes the relationships between people with disabilities and workers, in their organisational context. It uses Honneth's conditions for recognition—love (cared for), rights (respected) and solidarity or social esteem (valued)—to understand how policy positions mutuality in the relationship. The policy review applied a three‐stage process: categorisation of policies, textual analysis and content analysis to policy documents at four levels—international, Australian federal, state and organisational in two case studies. The analysis revealed that while a rights framework is explicit in most policies, the emphases on the conditions for recognition within a relationship between people with disabilities and workers are compromised in instructional policies that attempt to manage the tension between choice and risk, particularly at the organisational level.     

The analysis of substituted cathinones. Part 1: chemical analysis of 2-, 3- and 4-methylmethcathinone

The ring substituted methyl isomers of methcathinone, 2-, 3- and 4-methylmethcathinone were analysed. The 2- and 3-isomers were synthesized. The 4-methylmethcathinone isomer is also known as mephedrone and has been widely studied. We present GCMS, NMR and IR data for the three isomers. We show that the three isomers can be separated by GCMS and that the IR spectra for the three compounds can be used to distinguish between them. A seized sample was analysed and it was found to contain 4-methylmethcathinone and benzocaine.